Sunday, 23 May 2010

17. Peter Farrell

Position : Midfield

Played : 1982-3 to 1984-5

Appearances : 73

Goals : 17

Peter was potentially the most exciting of the new signings for 1982-3. As a youngster with Bury in the late 70s he had attracted attention from the big clubs but in the end it was Port Vale who broke their transfer record to sign him for £40,000 in 1979. Although he started well, over time he lost the support of the crowd and got a reputation as a “twenty minute player “ . In his last season there he had to make two “Stephen Vaughan” loan moves to Doncaster and Shrewsbury neither of whom gave him a game. His free transfer was no surprise.

So it was a case of career resurrection when he came to Dale at 25 and he took the chance. He was an attacking midfielder who could play a great ball behind the defence and got his fair share of goals. He did sometimes fade out of games but was clearly one of our better players. He had a good first season taking his time to get off the mark but finishing the season with 9 goals. In 1983-4 he had some injury problems without which he would almost certainly have finished as leading scorer notching 8 in 25 games. At the end of that season he wasn’t happy with the terms he was offered and started the next as a contract rebel. New manager Vic Halom, who didn't seem to rate any of the players he inherited, decided after 5 games that he was dispensable and he signed for Crewe.

He spent a couple of seasons there in and out of the side then went abroad playing for teams in Sweden, Iceland and Cyprus and three games for Hamilton in Scotland. In 1989-90 he signed for his final club Barrow where he was part of the FA Trophy winning side at Wembley in 1990 and is well remembered. Peter went on to work in the prison service but is now a well-regarded youth coach at Bolton where he has worked with Chris Basham and Temitope Odabeyi. His son Tom has had trials at Bury.